PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 53 



5. "Thrush"? 



"Another bird was described by several persons, something like the 

 Thrush, but with yellow bill and legs. Its egg is like the Cuckoo's in 

 shape and color." 



Of course, it can only be determined by examples. 



Fam. SYLVIID2E. 



6. Myiadestes genibarbis, Sw.— Native name, "Siffleur Montagne; Solitaire". 

 "The Mountain Whistler frequents the most gloomy and solitary 



mountain gorges, seeking the most retired situations — not so much 

 from shyness as from some inherent proclivity. 



u Found on the borders of open glades in the morning when seeking 

 its favorite food, the berries of a tall shrub. Never found below 1,000 

 feet altitude. Its mellow notes are first heard from a dark ravine above 

 Shawford Yalley as one ascends the mountains. (See Forest and 

 Stream.) 



"Length, <?, 7£ in.; alar extent, 11 j wing, 3J; tail, 3J." 



The female differs from the male only in having a wash of brownish- 

 olive across the middle of the back. There is a single specimen of the 

 young; in this each feather of the upper plumage terminates with 

 black, and has an adjoining subterminal round spot of bright rufous ; 

 the feathers of the under plumage are more rufous, with the terminal 

 edge less distinctly marked with black ; the throat and under tail-cov- 

 erts are light rufous ; the tail as in the adult. This specimen is spotted 

 much in the same manner as the figure of the young of M. ralloides, in 

 Exotic Ornithology, by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin, pi. xxxii. 



The M. armillatus of Bonaparte (Cons. Av. i, p. 335) agrees best with 

 M. genibarbis, Sw., as he describes the parotic region to be black, striped 

 with white, a character peculiar to that species. He has Swainson's 

 name as a synonym, considering the two to be identical ; he gives for 

 the habitat Central America and the Antilles. 



Prof. Baird (Rev. Am. Birds, p. 421) proves that M. armillatus, Gosse, 

 from Jamaica, is not M. armillatus, Vieill., and names it M. solitarius. 

 The true habitat of Vieillot's species is thus left unsettled, and I believe 

 no authentic examples of it are known to exist in any collection. Vieil- 

 lot, in his original description (Ois. Am. Sept. i, p. 69, pi. 42), gives the 

 Antilles as its habitat; afterwards (Enc. Meth. ii, p. 824) specifies Mar- 

 tinique as a locality. 



Mr. Sclater (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 270) considers the last reference as prob- 

 ably applying to M. genibarbis. Mr. Sclater also says : — " It is possible 

 that If. armillatus verus may be the species from St. Domingo, where 

 there is an unknown representative of this form.' 7 



M. genibarbis is noted from St. Lucia by Mr. Sclater in his list of the 

 birds of that island (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 263). The specimens from there 

 he compared with two examples of M. genibarbis in the Swainson collec- 

 tion at Cambridge, and found them to agree. 



